Last multipliers for multivectors with applications to Poisson geometry (Q1039536)

In the paper under review, the theory of the last multipliers as solutions of the Liouville's transport equation, previously developed for vector fields, is extended here to general multi-vectors. Characterizations in terms of Witten and Marsden differentials are reobtained as well as the algebraic structure of the set of multi-vectors with a common last multiplier. Applications to Poisson bi-vectors are presented and the notion of exact Poisson cohomology for an unimodular Poisson structure on \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\) is introduced. Now shortly present the contents of the paper. The first section recalls the definition of last multipliers and some previous results. Characterizations in terms of other types of differentials are recalled. For a fixed smooth function \(m\), the set of vector fields admitting \(m\) as last multiplier is shown to be a Lie subalgebra of the Lie algebra of vector fields. The next section is devoted to the announced extension to multi-vectors and the previous results regarding Marsden and Witten differentials are reobtained in this extended framework. Several consequences with respect to the Schouten bracket on multi-vectors are derived. In the following section the Poisson case is discussed and local expressions for the main results of this section are provided in terms of the bi-vector defining the Poisson bracket. Two concrete examples (two-dimensional Poisson structures and Lie-Poisson structures) are discussed and some known results are reobtained in this way. The last section is dedicated to a new notion namely exact Poisson cohomology for an unimodular Poisson structure in \(\mathbb{R}^{n}\). Finally an open problem is presented.